Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Trailerama: Cherry

Veronica Mars‘ Kyle Gallner is a good-natured engineering nerd. This is his first year at college. Because this a movie, instead of committing suicide by the third week of semester, he beds down a sexy mature student (Laura Allen). Oh, and fights off the advances of her 14-year-old daughter (Brittany Robertson). Rod Stewart had it right. Written and directed by Jeffrey Fine. Screening at this year’s SXSW Film Festival.

Coming Soon: Io sono l’amore/I am Love

Director: Luca Guadagnino
Written by Luca Guadagnino, Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, Walter Fasano
Starring Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher
The well-to-do Recchi clan unravel as the patriarch announes his successors and submerged passions rise to the surface. The film reunites Swinton with her The Protagonists director Guadagnino.
Wendy Ide: “The most elegant and controlled piece of storytelling in a long time is also skin-tinglingly sexy. Tilda Swinton (who produces as well as starred in it) is a marvel as the Russian matriarch of a Milanese fashion dynasty who falls in love and rediscovers herself.”

Work in Progress: Vinnie & Mario

If you ever want to hear a fascinating interview about what it takes to be a jobbing art-house director, take a listen to Elvis Mitchell’s chat with Nicolas Winding Refn. The Danish filmmaker wowed us with Pusher, then found himself having to repeat the trick as his other projects failed to get off the ground and he sank into depression. This culminated in last year’s Bronson, a weird mash-up of expressionism and a job of work that takes as its subject Britain’s most violent prisoner. Refn has since climbed out of the hole. Coming up is his acclaimed Viking drama Valhalla Rising. This clip is also a teaser of sorts for a travel agency ad campaign. Like other Refn works, it’s both deftly stylish and a bit of a put-on.

Western Union: Iain Sinclair

“Ballard was a working writer, first and last; the where of it was not to be disturbed. Fixed routines served him well; so many hours, so many words. Breakfast. Times crossword. Desk overlooking a natural ­garden. Stroll to the shops to observe the erotic rhythms of consumerism. Lunch standing up with The World at One on the radio. Back to the study. Forty-minute constitutional down to the river. TV chill-out meditation: ­Hawaii Five-O and The Rockford Files rather than Kenneth Clark.”

— Iain Sinclair on J.G. Ballard’s Shepperton semi (via The Guardian)

Happy Birthday, John Carradine!

Happy Birthday, Bonita Granville!

Uh Ah … Rohmer and Beatty

Squally’s Internet connection is giving him a headache. So while away your time reading these: First, Richard Brody uses Pauline sur la plage to hit on the nature of Eric Rohmer.

Given Rohmer’s love of classical music (he wrote a terrific book about it, “From Mozart to Beethoven”), it’s worth noting what the pace of his creation implied: he was able to keep a rapid pace of production for the same reason that Haydn was able to write a hundred and four symphonies in his seventy-seven years and Mozart wrote forty-one in his mere thirty-five, namely, classicism. As they did, he had a system that was based on a set of self-devised conventions. That’s why, superficially, his films seem to resemble each other; it’s also why, like these composers, each of his films seems to be part of a distinct, Rohmerian world.

Sundance 2010 Preview: Etc.

After a hard day watching documentaries about globalisation and touching dramas about growing up in a gentrified Echo Park, what’s a still fiending film fan to do? The answer is head for Sundance’s fringe events. This year, Park City at Midnight serves up a helping of Canadian revenge, a Guillermo del Toro-endorsed horror film, and the wackiest ski thriller since Hot Dog. Also pulling in the A-list names to Utah are two premieres celebrating the great American traditions of hot rock chicks and dying slowly in Texas.

Click here to read our U.S. Documentary Competition Preview
Click here to read our U.S. Dramatic Competition Preview
Click here to read our International Documentary Competition Preview
Click here to read our International Dramatic Competition Preview

Premieres

The Killer Inside Me

Jim Thompson’s bone-dry noir novels of dice ‘n’ deceit have inspired plenty of cinematic adaptations, ranging from Steve McQueen in The Getaway to John Cusack palming twenties in The Grifters. Bringing his 1952 masterpiece to the screen is director Michael Winterbottom, more used to guerilla filmmaking like In This World. The dream cast includes Casey Affleck as a sociopathic Texas sheriff and Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson as his itchy women. Don’t worry about the plot, because Thompson never did. Just groove on the fetid funereal atmosphere.

The Runaways

In the late ‘70s, the all-girl band The Runaways were fun, flirty, and just a little bit jailbait. After lighting up the charts with “Cherry Bomb,” guitarist Joan Jett hearted rock ‘n’ roll, lead guitarist Lita Ford kissed me deadly and singer Cherie Currie fell off the charts into addiction. Her memoir is the basis for this biopic, whose kiss between leads Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart has fuelled at least fanboy fantasy. Michael Shannon plays Kim Fowley, the scariest Svengali in rock ‘n’ roll.

Trailerama: The A-Team

If you’re going to watch a movie called The A-Team, you deserve what you get. So no complaining. The trailer creators make it look like director Joe Carnahan delivers the mayhem, if not quite the tongue-in-cheek approach this material demands. Good to see District 9 man as Murdock, too.